Bartek Sikorski

Too much of a good thing
Andrew Frankel

Driving a car at 200mph is not always the thrill you might expect. So long as the car is stable and the tarmac smooth, straight, dry and deserted, you just wait as the world rushes past ever faster until the number pops up on the dial.
I didn’t drive this Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster at 200mph, because conditions on the autobahn didn’t allow, but I got close enough to know that, this side of a chocolate fireplace, there are few things in this world more pointless than a 200mph convertible. Quite aside from the effects on the life expectancy of your hairpiece, it’s not actually a pleasant way of passing the time.
That said, it is not difficult to like a car that accelerates so hard it makes your passenger yelp. Its 5.5 litre V8 is now one of Mercedes’ oldest engines and come next spring will have been replaced in every model save the SLR, but it is still the most characterful. And in a car without a roof there is even greater opportunity to savour its thundering soundtrack, overlaid by the unique whine of a hardworking supercharger.
Whether that makes the SLR Roadster worth £350,000, and nearly £35,000 more than the coupé upon which it’s based, is another matter. You don’t need me to tell you that 35 grand will buy a very passable car, not least a Mercedes-Benz SLK that gives you all the advantages of a coupé and roadster under one folding steel roof. Yet £35,000 is the premium that Mercedes is charging to replace the SLR’s carbon-fibre roof with one made predominantly from fabric.
It’s true that the car has had to be significantly reengineered to stop its weight from ballooning (it still weighs a hardly dainty 1750kg, some 57kg more than the coupé) but when stowed the roof doesn’t even live under a cover and when erected needs to be locked onto the windscreen manually. Mercedes says all this was done to minimise weight.
But while you can choose to snipe at this approach (and I do), you have also to recognise that there is not another car that has lost so little of its dynamic prowess in the conversion from coupé to convertible. The fact that it was made from carbon fibre, just like a Formula One car, has helped reduce the effects of chopping off the roof.
Credit also has to be given to the way Mercedes has managed the airflow around the car at high speeds. Up to around 140mph you naturally hear the wind rushing by but you actually feel remarkably little of it, which means that at more normal speeds you should be able to enjoy hour after hour of roof-down motoring without becoming tired or uncomfortable, so the cruise from La Croisette to the Boulevard des Anglais is unlikely to prove taxing.
And that, of course, is its real role. Whatever its capabilities, the SLR Roadster is designed with one purpose in mind: namely taking its owner and a favoured other to a place where both will be noticed by other rich people, most of whom will surmise quite correctly that the owner has more money than them.
So having started by saying few things are more pointless than a 200mph convertible, I must conclude by saying the Roadster version is the best of the SLR breed. Because it has a low revving eight cylinder engine and a slow shifting five speed automatic gearbox, it’s never going to offer the sheer driving pleasure of a Ferrari 599 GTB, even at almost twice the price. But as a car to take you long distances in comfort and at high speeds, and make you look, if not cool, then at least affluent when you arrive, it ticks every box. And that is its point.
What this means for other SLRs remains to be seen. The unlikeable 722 Edition has already sold out and the standard coupé has stopped production to make way for the Roadster. Whether it will ever resume is something upon which Mercedes would not be drawn.
In the meantime, if you want a new SLR, a Roadster it must be. Is it worth £350,000? Not even close. Do I want one? Not much. Will it at last achieve the one thing the SLR coupé never managed and prove a success in the showroom? I expect so.
Vital statistics
Model Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster
Engine type 5439cc, eight cylinders
Power/Torque 626bhp @ 6500rpm / 575 lb ft @ 3250rpm
Transmission Five-speed automatic
Fuel/CO2 19.5mpg / n/a
Performance 0-62mph: 3.8sec / Top speed: 206mph
Price £350,000
Verdict Strictly for the Monaco set
Rating
Date of release September
The opposition
Model Aston Martin DB9 Volante £118,750
For Looks, sound, aristocratic V12 engine
Against Ride and handling not as good as coupé version
Model Lamborghini Murciélago LP460 £210,000
For Awesome engine, acceleration, presence
Against Not the most practical thing on four wheels
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Centurion

MB are 3 years late with this car. SLR is kind of yesterdays super car. The 599GTB is what's hot. I would rather buy the cheaper LP640 roadster or lay a deposit down for a 599GTB Super America/Cab.

SDNR

^^ absolutely ....totally agree.


You're on a roll today Lu -- I'm agreeing with all of your points

Bartek Sikorski

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